Quail Eggs, Chicken Hearts, and Thou

A while back my wife went to a Brazilian restaurant in Philadelphia and she has been raving about it ever since.  I finally got a chance to go to one this week and I can totally see why she loved it so much.

It is what I imagine meals were like for royalty several hundred years ago... or last week, I guess.  Look, I don’t have the faintest idea how royals are served their food.  It doesn't matter.  Just picture a never-ending stream of waitstaff plying you with various types of meat (and the occasional grilled fruit or vegetable) every four minutes or so, throw in an extensive salad bar, and that’s pretty much the experience right there.  

Sort of like a more dignified “King Henry’s Feast” with fewer drunken morons yelling “Wassail!” and instead of shouting “Serving wench, come hither!” you have a token like the one in the pic.  If you turn it green side up they constantly swing on by with more food.  If it is red side up, they let you have a break.

Oh, when I say “extensive salad bar” I mean it.  You name it, it’s probably there.  They had fresh mozzarella, they had baby corn, they had hearts of palm, and they had quail eggs...  I had never tried a quail egg before - they were great - sort of like eating just the yellow part of a hard-boiled chicken egg but with more flavor.

I told a co-worker about the quail eggs and he asked me if they were cooked.  “What?”, I said.   I continued: “Well... yeah... I mean... Wait... are you serious?  Yeah, of course they were cooked.  What the hell, dude?  Do you think I said I ate raw, freshly squeezed, quail-temperature quail eggs or something?  They were hard-boiled and chilled.  They were good...  Jeebus...”

And the “various types of meat”?  They had beef of all kinds, sure, they had pork, they had bacon-wrapped turkey [insert Homer drooling sound here], they had terrific Buffalo wings, and they had grilled chicken hearts.

You heard me.

I probably wouldn’t have tried this last item if it weren’t for the waiter that came over with them and said, awesomely, with a perfectly straight face “Would you folks like to try some chicken hearts or would you like me to come back with something less... Well, less gruesome?”  They tasted like steak but had the texture of kidney beans.  Not only were they good, as a result of sampling this new food I now possess my own courage plus that of two chickens, so watch out, world!

You know, with the huge variety of stuff on the menu I’m a little shocked they didn’t offer otters’ noses or stork ankles... 

Le'ssee... What else?  Oh, yeah... 

I got two dozen of beef and cheese burritos in today from Mighty Taco.  The dry ice had all sublimed by the time I got them (darn) but the burritos and the sauce packets were still extremely well frozen.  They were terrific, of course, but I am not looking forward to facing my virtual Nike+ Kinect trainer tomorrow... I just know he is going to forgo the usual “Hey, buddy, you ready to get started being a totally awesome winner this morning and get mega pumped and ripped?” and just jump straight to shaking his head and muttering “Pitiful. I can see the deadly hamburger has done its evil work.”

I don’t care, though.  Totally worth it.  Thanks for the awesome food this week, Mrs. SnowUrchin!  You rock!